Earlier this week Dov Charney made headlines when he said that American Apparel was "in talks" with Russia to design Olympics apparel and merchandise for the Russian team for the 2014 Olympics. But, turns out that Russia's Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee has no plans to manufacture its uniforms in the US.

“The Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee is not in negotiations with American Apparel for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi," a rep from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said in a statement to WWD. "The official outfitter of the Russian team up to 2016 is the company Bosco Sport.” Moscow-based Bosco Sport confirmed to the trade that they have a contract with the ROC to produce Olympic uniforms for the Russian team through the 2016 Olympics. So what gives? Was Dov Charney making it up?

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While Charney declined to comment about any contact he's had with Bosco, he told WWD,"I had contact from an organization that is connected to the government. Nothing has been signed but we were in dialogue." When he was asked to respond to what the ROC had said about their uniforms, Charney said, "I don’t know that every senior person [at the ROC] knows everything that’s going on with an inquiry about product.” We've reached out to American Apparel and will update when we hear back.

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Looks like American Apparel may be designing the uniforms for some proud red, white, and blue-wearing Olympians...who aren't American. In a conversation about clothing manufacturing and national pride that has come to a head today because of the Ralph Lauren "Made in China" US Olympic uniform controversy, Dov Charney has now thrown his voice into the melee.
The New York Post is reporting that American Apparel is apparently in talks to design Russia's Olympic uniforms. Russia and AA have reportedly been talking since 2011 about the US-based retailer manufacturing Russia's 2014 winter Olympics uniforms. And why is this happening, you ask? Charney told the paper, “[Russian Olympic team representatives] said they didn’t want anything that was made in China.” Charney told the Post that the line for Russia would include both uniforms and merchandise. We reached out to American Apparel for more information, and a rep confirmed that they were still in talks at this time.
But it turns out that Charney wants to help with America's uniforms, too.

Watch out, America. Dov Charney is taking a road trip. He's traveling through the South as we speak, and is obviously trying to convince everyone that American Apparel is staging a comeback/recovery. He's been in the media a bit lately--like that extended interview he did with Flaunt, telling the indie mag that American Apparel was going to make $20 million in earnings before interest, and was on track to double that in 2012.
WWD caught up with Charney in Texas, where he told the trade, "We're getting our groove back a bit." But are they? Let's review the company's recent financial history.

American Apparel may have just gotten another credit lifeline, but that doesn't neccesarily mean the brand's been saved.
Earlier this week, American Apparel got an $80 million lifeline from George Soros-backed Crystal Financial LLC and and Salus Capital Partners LLC. The company has managed to consistently avoid bankruptcy with these sort of 11th hour cash injections and loans; and while they may be buying time, retail analysts say it's not enough to save the company, which is still over $100 million in debt and has $185 million in excess inventories. According to WWD, their new deal comes with a high interest rate of 9.5%, so that debt's not going to go away any time soon.
The trade asked several retail industry insiders to give their perspectives on Charney and co.'s current situation. Most of them aren't very optimistic.